Comment by ajb
17 hours ago
The EU and UK already require sellers to recycle electronics, and we can still afford washing machines. Here is Amazon's page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...
17 hours ago
The EU and UK already require sellers to recycle electronics, and we can still afford washing machines. Here is Amazon's page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...
Thinking for a moment what "recycling" a washing machine would look like and it's very obvious it would just mean paying a 3rd party to dump it in the 3rd world somewhere to be stripped if at all. Hard to imagine it's not causing more environmental damage by having this policy.
A washing machine has a decent amount of metal in it, that's definitely going to be recycled, as it has value. A policy like this could cause environmental damage, but saying that it's inevitable is just defeatist. In fact the manufacturer is the one with the knowledge to recycle stuff properly as they know what went into it. This is actually a way to work with the market. Any other option, other than just giving up, involves more government intervention.
There's also Stewart Brand style cradle-to-cradle design, where you build in features that allow recycling to be easy, that's really my goal when I say manufacturers should be responsible - change the design
The scrap metal yard near me definitely pays to take washing machines and dryers. There's a lot of steel scrap, some circuit boards, and a motor in there.
Heh. I am in the EU. For washing machines specifically, I get a tiny discount when I buy a new one for having them pick up the old one for recycling. Possibly for freezers too, but for some reason my washers break but the freezer doesn't.
Not all stores do that though, if I buy from one that doesn't I can call my local recycling center and they'll eventually get around to picking up the old appliance from your home.
However, this is not done by the manufacturer or importer, as the OP suggested. There are separate organizations and it's paid for via a tax on new device purchases.
Which means a new washing machine manufacturer doesn't need to worry about having their own recycling infrastructure. And I move that the recycling tax I pay for national level recycling adds less to the price than $NEW_COMPANY building their own, just for their models.
> for some reason my washers break but the freezer doesn't.
The properties of your running water and the presence of very much moving parts in the former?
Noo it can't be that! I definitely don't have to rebalance the washer regularly to stop it from dancing around my bathroom!
It's one of them new solid state washers designed by "AI". Very advanced technology!